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Vaccine shortage hits Indian-administered Kashmir
Tag: Youth
The Insight on Kashmir publishes content related to the youth of Jammu and Kashmir. In Kashmir, education needs to be given priority! Curriculums have to be designed in a manner that the youth gain confidence to compete at the national and international level. The Kashmiri youth have a for progress in society.
Political Imperialism and Youth in Pakistani Politics
By: Prof. Abdul Shakoor Shah
“Pakistan is proud of her youth, particularly the students who have always been at the forefront in the hour of trial and need. You are the nation’s leaders of tomorrow and you must fully equip yourself by discipline, education and training for the arduous task lying ahead of you. You should realize the magnitude of your responsibility and be ready to bear it.” – Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Youth between ages 15-24 exceed 1.1 billion comprising 18% of global population and together with the one below age 24 amounts to 40%.
Approximately 133 million youth remain illiterate and 41% are unemployed worldwide. Roughly, 238 million youth live on less than 1 US dollar and 7000 young people get infected daily.
Almost 54 % of South Asian youth leave school without the necessary skills to get a decent job. South Asia with half of its population of 1.8 billion is below the age of 24.
South Asia will have the largest youth labour force in the world until 2040. The region has greater prospects of economic development if it succeeds in harnessing the potential of youths.
The core reasons for unemployment in Asian youths include lack of experience 26% insufficient support services 23% and illegal practices 44% even after their graduation.
In 2018 elections in Pakistan, 27% of electoral was youth aging between 26-35 and 20% between ages 18-25.
More than 60% of Pakistanis are youths and they have the potential to bring prosperity and good governance. But their voice is unheard and unrepresented in the political system.
Currently Pakistan has the largest number of youths ever in history. Two thirds of our population is under 30 and the children under 15 who are going to be leaders of tomorrow. Our youth has the potential of molding national destiny by participating in political and economic dynamics. Annually, 4 million youth step into the working age.
We are in dire need of creating 1.3 million new jobs annually. Youth and Politics are sparking affairs that should be catered with care and planning. Just integration of youth in politics is the only sure way to success.
Our political system is pushing the youth out of mainstream politics and we do not have any institutions for political training of the youth. Politics should be introduced as a subject after middle school level.
We must focus on strategic planning about Student Unions. Age factor for parliamentarians and national politics should be revised. E-Democracy should be introduced. Youth institutes should be constituted like youth Parliament and Youth Senate. Youth must be given parliamentarian quota as per their population ratio.
The Ministry for youth affairs should be empowered. We must ponder seriously over the workshops and seminars regarding youth training to promote political culture. Youth must be given inter-provincial and international exposure. Youths should be encouraged to represent the parties and national affairs in Talk-Shows to get rid of monotonous faces. The young blood should fight and come on the top to revolutionize the existence of a fraudulent realm of political affairs in Pakistan.
There is great discrimination against youth in every field in the country. The ruling elites have imposed their imperialistic political colonialism on the youth. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer day by day. The youth of middle or lower middle classes are facing indescribable problems when they try to come upward on the ladder of stratification in the society.
These youths face severe difficulties when they want to join mainstream politics. The hereditary, capital and feudalistic politics has no room for a middle class youth. The system is designed only for elitists who rule from cradle to grave by narrowing down the paths for the youths of the middle and lower middle class.
The government and private sector should ensure sponsorships for the rising middle class leaders. Fair and just intera party elections should be ensured and monitored by Election Commission of Pakistan. The Political parties must be made bound to reserve seats for middle and lower middle class youth.
No party should ever be registered on individual names. The political parties must revise their party manifestos. Local Body Elections should be ensured so that youth can grow themselves. Meetings of political parties should be open to the public so that masses come to know what is happening and in this way the youth will get a chance to learn and improve. Proceedings of the National Assembly should be open to the public with ease. Youth must be provided a chance to get interacted with MNAs and MPAs.
Media should regulate more productive shows for youth for political maturity. Government and political parties must mutually organize rural political awareness workshops and training for youth and masses. The government and political parties must establish political training units in all the areas for clear political insight. The politics of money, influence and rest of corrupt practices should be constitutionally hammered. Election tickets should not be given on money, influence and hereditary bases. The party and state should ensure funds for the youths that do not cater an elite background.
Our youths have been used as political instruments by our politicians. They use them for their vested interests. The youth policies have never been drafted in favor of youth. Our educational institutions must prescribe a day in a week as “Politicians for a Day.” We are not educating our future generation politically and we are lamenting and mourning over the political system. We are just crying for improvement without taking any initiative.
The policies, decisions and constitutional amendments for youth are made by aged politicians which is utterly illogical. Our youths are directionless, perturbed and confused. If they get inspiration from seasoned politicians, they have failed to put the country on track. All the political parties have youth in their manifestos, youth political wings but they don’t have youth as per their population ratio on party designations, Assembly and Senate. It is undemocratic democracy or democratic dictatorship.
The writer is a professor in English and freelance columnist, based in Lahore, Pakistan
Prof.abdulshakoorsyed@gmail.com
Unemployment and mental health issues in Kashmiri youth
Unemployment among educated youth is one of the major social problems in both parts of Jammu and Kashmir. In recent years, the unemployment rates have continued to increase, due to insufficient job creations.
Various studies have found that the problem of unemployment gains more importance because of higher incidence of unemployment among the educated section of youth in the state. Due to limited job opportunities available for educated youth in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Indian held Jammu and Kashmir, the number of unemployed youth has been increasing in every passing year.
Unemployment increases the psychological toll on families and can also increase stress and other negative effects of families which can exacerbate one’s overall mental health. The research shows that unemployed have higher level of anxiety, depression, loss of behavioural/emotional control and psychological distress and have lower level of emotional ties, life satisfaction and general positive affect in comparison to their counter parts.
The research also shows that high prevalence and associated risk factors of depression, anxiety, and behaviour problems among job seekers. This indicates that preventive workforce initiatives aimed at better alignment between educational channel and job markets are needed. Furthermore, early mental support and resilience training programs during higher education are needed to potentially mitigate the elevated risk of mental issues among unemployed youth in Kashmir.
Investing in Kashmiri youth
By Farooq Wani
The turmoil in Kashmir which has various dimensions has been caused by a wide array of factors that are political to social and even religious in nature. Underlining that the youth of Kashmir are feeling annoyed and exasperated with the system, which has many shortcomings that fuels the unending cycle of unemployment. This makes many feel that their aspirations are not being met and the fear of joining the swelling ranks of the ‘educated-unemployed’ looms large.
This situation requires to be remedied immediately and there is an urgent need to engage with the youth to wean them away from the desire to take the path of self destruction. There is a need to look more deeply into the reasons that makes the youth drift away from the mainstream. Lack of political will, absence of skill development programmes, over dependence on traditional methods of earning etc are some of the major factors behind this.
A major reason behind this crisis is the lack of economic opportunity which leads to unemployment and frustration. Kashmir is experiencing a “youth bulge,” where 71 percent of the population is under the age of 35. Sadly, out of the large section of population between the ages of 18 to 30 in the Kashmir Valley, an estimated 48 percent is currently unemployed.
However, creating employment avenues continues to be a big problem for the government as business houses are afraid to invest in Kashmir due the ongoing unrest in the state. The fragile socio-political landscape, affected by continuing violent conflict and instability has created a deep sense of uncertainty amongst the local population, particularly the youth that has grown up in this adverse environment and has faced tremendous stress. Feeling of desperation, anger and helplessness is largely prevalent among them.
The government has launched a number of schemes to provide employment to youth in the state and infrastructure in terms of schools,colleges, community development centers, ITIs etc. have also been established to impart quality education and generate self employment opportunities. Besides, a good amount of stress has been laid in the field of sports to encourage the young to channelize their energies in the right direction and also pick up sports as a career. There are numerous cases of Kashmiri youth who represented India in various sport disciplines at international levels and these achievers are becoming an inspiration for others.
Recently, India Today reporter Moumita Sen made a sports documentary ‘ “Try Colour Kashmir” which is about Kashmir’s budding sports persons which is so inspiring that it was awarded with the Ramnath Goenka which Home Minister Rajnath Singh presented to her. It is very unfortunate that various groups in Kashmir have conveniently exploited the sentiments of youth and misguided them for their own selfish gains. They lose no opportunity to exploit sensitive situations, disrupt the functioning of government and engineer situations that lead to deterioration of the law and order problems.
They pick up every opportunity that can be twisted to serve as propaganda to further their motivated designs. Some sections of people in Kashmir act in a manner that causes damage to the psyche of the youth like sensationalizing and glorifying violence and demonizing the government and security forces by spreading false rumours or exaggerating facts. All of this ends in instigating the masses, particularly the youth.
The solution to this lies with the people and they have to generate the will to give peace a chance so that the development activities can be carried forward and this will lead to job creation which will channelize the energy of the youth towards productive pursuits.
The state government, the elders and the civil society of Kashmir have to play a vital role to removing the prevailing feeling of hatred and frustration that envelopes the youth of the Valley and though this is undoubtedly a long term process but a beginning has to be made. It cannot be denied that the government is focusing on the issue of development despite the law and order challenges.
Launching of employment generating programs like ‘Hamayat’ and ‘Udan’ are steps in the rightdirection. A lot more, however, needs to be done and that too in a time bound manner so that the results are visible and the fear of being unemployed doesn’t haunt the youth. In addition to this, there is a need to put an end to ‘Hartal Politics’ as shutdowns are dissuading investors from coming to Kashmir and establishing facilities that are manpower intensive.
Education also needs to be given priority! Curriculums have to be designed in a manner that the youth gain confidence to compete at the national and international levels. More and more deserving students need to be sponsored for education in other states to widen the knowledge base and the passion that the youth have for games needs to be further leveraged.Searching and nurturing talent should be followed up with providing opportunities to compete within the state and in larger platforms.As stated earlier all stakeholders need to join hands and work together for providing the youth a more promising and bright future. The elders need to educate everyone about the rich dividends peace will yield while the government should provide incentives to attract more investment in the state, especially in private sector, which will increase employment opportunities for youth.
Media too needs to fulfill its social responsibility by avoiding negative reporting and instead guiding youth in the right direction. By avoiding sensationalism, the media can reduce the anger and violent mindset of Kashmiri youth. The youth should become the centre of gravity of government policy in Jammu and Kashmir. Sincere efforts in this direction have the potential of changing the socio-political landscape of the trouble torn region. The time will come soon when J&K will re-emerge as the crown and coronet of peace and progress for the entire country.” –Eurasia Review
AJK President urges youth to work for Kashmir cause
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan Saturday urged the youth to devote their time and energies for the promotion of Kashmir cause and raise their voice for the oppressed and subjugated people of Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK).
“I urge the youth of the country to work for the realization of the right to self-determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, who are being oppressed and brutalized and have been disenfranchised,” he said while addressing as chief guest at the inaugural session of the Model United Nations Conference organized by Public Speaking Society of the Institute of Public Administration (IBA) in Karachi, according to a press release issued here by the AJK Presidential Secretariat.
Sardar Masood said the people of IoK had been made alien in their own homeland. The occupation forces were killing, torturing and maiming the youth, while the women were being dishonored. The Indian forces, he added, were raping even children and mass blinding the young people by using lethal pellet guns.
“This all is being done in an environment of absolute impunity,” the AJK President said. All the perpetrators of the heinous crimes, he regretted, had been given immunity from prosecution under draconian laws like Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Public Safety Act (PSA), which had been called lawless laws by the Amnesty International.
He asked the students, faculty members of the IBA and youth across the country to intensify their political, diplomatic and moral support to their brothers and sisters in IoK, who were struggling for their inherent right to self-determination.
“Let me also tell you that every citizen of Pakistan believes in the justness of Kashmir cause but our endeavors are not critical. I would say every citizen of Pakistan, every individual, and every student; every young man and women should invest their time and energy for intensifying political and diplomatic campaigns for the freedom and liberty of the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he emphasized.
Sharing his views with the audience on the successes and failures of the United Nations, President Masood said the unresolved Kashmir conflict was one of the biggest failures of the world body. The non-resolution of the conflicts in Africa and the Middle East were perilously drifting the world towards bigger conflict.
The United Nations, he added, also failed to take action needed to stave off the worst effects of climate change that was now affecting every country on every continent.
About the success of the United Nations, the AJK president said the world body still provided hope for the troubled and turbulent world. The UN not only succeeded in preventing an outbreak of world war in the last seven decades by sending peacekeeping and observer missions to the world’s trouble spots to restore peace and calm and allowing many countries to recover from the conflicts.
The world body had contributed to the efforts around the world in disaster management, helping victims of disasters and reducing the effects of man-made and natural disasters and also significantly contributing towards sustainable development and improving literacy and education around the world, he added.
Sardar Masood urged the IBA and the Public Speaking Society to prepare the students for multilateral diplomacy and international relations along with developing requisite skills and abilities to make them able to work for peace, development and human rights both in the country and at international level. -APP
Kashmir is burning again
An alarming spurt in violence in early spring has been marked by attacks on civilians by militants, the army using a civilian as a shield against stone-pelters, the lowest ever voter turn-out in a parliamentary by-election and the use of social media as a tool to stoke passion.
These are all indications of bad days ahead for Kashmiris, who were looking forward to a calmer summer in 2017. If this is the bad news, what is even worse is that the situation appears to be slipping out of the hands of both the state and the non-state actors in Kashmir’s sordid drama of pain and suffering.
Inthe Srinagar parliamentary by-poll on 9 April, just seven percent of the voters came out to exercise their franchise. Eight civilian protesters died while trying to ensure the boycott of an election that was otherwise ignored by a vast majority of Kashmiris. The fallout of the unprecedented low voter turnout and violence in Srinagar forced the deferment of the Anantnag by-poll that was scheduled on 12 April. While the Election Commission pushed this to 25 May, all indications on the ground suggest it would have to be deferred to October or beyond.
In other violence, two civilians were killed in the south Kashmir districts of Pulwama and Shopian for their political affiliations.
Bashir Ahmad Dar of Rajpora town in Pulwama was killed on April 15 by gunmen for his affiliation with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while a day later, a young lawyer was killed in Pinjura village of Shopian district for his affiliation with the National Conference (NC).
The young lawyer had served as a public prosecutor during the NC government in the state.
On 16 April, a video clip was uploaded on social media of a trader of Pulwama town denouncing India and begging for his life with guns pointed at him.
In another video from the same district a civilian was seen cursing himself for being an activist of a mainstream political party and vowed never to even look at politics in the future.
The recent “video war” in the Valley started after images of a CRPF trooper being heckled by youths during the April 9 election were uploaded on social media.
This was followed by the video of a youth tied to the front of an army jeep, apparently to avoid attacks from stone-pelters.
Then, massive Valley-wide protests by students broke out on 17 April after videos showing students of Pulwama college being ruthlessly beaten by the security forces were uploaded on social media the previous day.
To prevent the use of social media as a tool to stoke passions, the authorities on Monday again ordered the suspension of mobile internet services in the Valley.
Also, the internet speed of fixed-line broadband connections has been lowered to prevent uploading of videos. Following attacks on the families of policemen, the state police department issued an advisory on 16 April asking its men to exercise extreme caution while visiting their home towns.
On Monday, Amnesty International took serious note of armed groups targeting civilians. The human rights watchdog condemned attacks on civilians for their political affiliations and also on the families of state police force.
The operations of the security forces have been highly compromised by civilian protests while they are on, especially in south Kashmir districts.
Army chief, General Bipin Rawat, visited the state on Sunday. He met Governor NN Vohra in Jammu and then Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in New Delhi.
Gen. Rawat has reportedly expressed displeasure against a youth being tied to an army jeep to avoid stone-pelting.
An FIR has been lodged by the state police against the army personnel involved in the act. The opposition NC has demanded dismissal of the PDP-BJP government, accusing it of “Pushing Kashmir into darkness”.
The PDP and BJP leaders have, in turn, accused the NC of having left behind the Aegean Stables of trouble during its long years of of rule. The blame games between the mainstream parties notwithstanding, unless the central and the state governments act fast to pull Kashmir out of its present spiral of anger and violence, 2017 might be worse than what Kashmiris have been through since armed violence started here in the early 1990s.
Stone Carving, militancy or tourism
‘Hardworking Kashmiris were carving through a rocky mountain to shape their future when some of their fellow brothers were busy throwing stones.’ The speech of India’s iconic prime minister was allegoric while painting his new picture of Kashmir.
The statement defines allegory in a subtle tone; an expression that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. After BJP’s landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh, which proved to be a booster for his stature as the prime minister of India, this was his first significant statement over Kashmir.
“I want to tell the misguided youth of Kashmir, realise the power of a stone. On the one hand, there are some youth who pelt stones, on the other hand, there are young men from the same Kashmir who carve stones to build infrastructure,” he said. In Kashmir the art of stone carving has a long history of centuries.
The Prime Minister urged the youth of the Valley to choose between “tourism and terrorism”, saying “40 years of bloodshed” has not done anyone any good.
He promised to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the development of Jammu and Kashmir, and follow former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s slogan of “Kashmiriyat, Jamhooriyat, Insaniyat (Kashmirism, democracy and humanity)” to take the state to new heights.
He said if the people of Kashmir had devoted 40 years to development of tourism, the Valley would have been blessed with a vibrant world-class tourist economy.
“I want to tell the Kashmiri youth, there are two paths in front of you which can determine your future; one is tourism, the other is terrorism.”
Modi drove in an open jeep through the all-weather route, which is expected to help trade and tourism in the region.
“This tunnel is not just the longest tunnel but a big leap for Jammu and Kashmir in terms of development,” Modi said, describing the engineering feat as the state’s “fate-line” that will translate dreams into reality.
At the inauguration, where thousands of people have gathered, Modi’s message was clearly for the Kashmiri youth involved in stone-pelting at security forces, thereby risking their lives.
Militancy-hit Kashmir has been intensely restive since the killing of a popular militant leader, last summer that triggered a long unrest in which more than 80 people were killed and hundreds wounded in clashes with security forces. (With input from agencies and Hindustan Times).
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